Conveyor mechanism



Oct. 21, 1958 R. J. GAUBERT 2,857,042

CONVEYOR MECHANISM Original Filed June 10, 1950 2 Sheets-Sheet i INVENTOR w RENE J. GAUBERT ATTORNEY Oct. 21, 1958 R. J. GAUBERT CONVEYOR MECHANISM 2 Shets-Sheet 2 Original Filed June 10, 1950 INVENTOR RENE J. GAUBERT ATTORNEY nited Sttes 'atent O chinery and Chemical Corporation, San Jose, Calif., a

corporation of Delaware Application June 10, 1950, Serial N o. 167 ,404, now Patent No. 2,790,540, dated April 30, 1957, which is a division of application Serial No. 55,395, October 19, 1948,

now Patent No. 2,676,442, dated April 27, 1954. Di-

vided and this application October 24, 1956, Serial No. 618,023

2 Claims. (Cl. 198-165) This invention pertains generally to the art of material handling, and more particularly to a conveyor adapted to handle sheet material.

This application is a division of my copending application Serial No. 167,404, filed June 10, 1950, now

Patent No. 2,790,540'whichis a division of. my application Serial No. 55,395, filed October 19, 1948, now Patent No. 2,676,442, issued April 27, 1954.

In the'aforesaid application Serial No. 55,395 a machine is disclosed which manufactures bags from Cellophane, Pliofilm or like sheet material, and which automatically fills the bags with products such as candy, nuts, dried fruits and the like. An intermittent conveying means is employed to carry the bags in upright relation through the filling stations of the machine. The-conveyor which accomplishes this function is the subject matter of my above identified divisional application, Serial No. 167,404. Thebag making and filling machine disclosed in application Serial No. 55,395 includes another conveyor to receive the bags issuing from the bag making machine in a substantially horizontalplane and to deliver the bags in a substantially vertical planeto the intermittent conveyor upon which the bags are carried while being filled. The present invention is concerned with the conveyor for receiving bags as they are delivered by the bag making machine and for delivering them in an upright position to thefilling apparatus.

It is an object ofthe present invention, therefore, to provide a conveying mechanism suitable for conveying bags from a bag making machine to the conveyor of a bag filling machine.

A further object of the invention is to provide a conveyor capable of receiving bags in one plane and delivering the bags in a plane substantially perpendicular to the plane in which they are received.

These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description and accompanying drawings in which:

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a bag making and filling I machine incorporating the conveying mechanism of the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary section through the bag making and filling machine of Fig. 1, showing the conveying mechanism of the present invention in longitudinal section.

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary section taken on lines 3-3 of Fig. 2 and,

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary section taken on line 44 of 2,857,042 Patented Oct. 21, 1958 bag filling station, a weight check station, and a sealing station.

For the bag making unit I prefer to use a machine which will prepare the bags from a continuous web of sheet material, and present them successively to the conveying means 12. A suitable machine for this purpose is disclosed and claimed in my Patent N0. 2,347,902, entitled Bag Making Machine and, Method.

As explained in said patent the machine incorporates means for folding the sheet of material to bring its lateral edges into overlapping relation, sealing the overlapping edges together to form a flat tube of bag stock, advancing the tube longitudinally, and folding and sealing the leading end of the tube to form the bottom of a 'bag. The finished bag end is advanced into engagement with opposed, rotatably mounted feed rollers 36 and 38, which correspond to the rollers 116, 117 of Patent 2,347,902 and which constitute a part of the conveyor 12 of the present invention. In addition, knives (not shown in detail) are provided in proximity, with the 'feed rolls 36 and 38, which sever the finished bag from the remainder of the material. 7

When the folded over and sealed end of the bag is translated into engagement with the rollers 36 and 38,

Y these rollers are rotated inopposite directions to draw a amount to release their grip upon the bag, and then the cutting means severs the bag a short distance from rollers 36, 38. During this cutting operation rotation of the rollers 36, 38 is interrupted, but immediately after the bag is cut, the rollers are rotated again for a brief interval to advance the cut bag by the conveying means 12 of the instant invention. This last rotation occurs during a sealing operation for forming the next bag. As is fully explained in the said Patent No. 2,676,442, a common drive ispro'vided for the bag making unit and other parts of the bagging machine, wherebythe bags are made at a rate corresponding to the rate with which the bags are received and successively filled'by the remainder of the machine.

' 'Theconveying means 12 of the present invention is so constructed that it receives the individual bags from the bag making unit, and delivers them successively to a receiving station of the conveying means 14 of the bag filling apparatus. The construction of the conveying 'means 12 can behest seen in Figures 2, 3 and 4. The

roller 36 is provided with a plurality of grooves 40 serving to track the looped ends of a lower set of laterally spaced belts 42. Roller 38 is mounted directly above A pair of laterally spaced parallel rollers 46 and 48 A are rotatably carried by mounting brackets 50 and 52 (Fig. 3) rigidly supported by the main frame 18 of the.

bagging machine 8. Roller 46 is provided with grooves 54 for tracking the lower belts 42. Roller 48 is provided with grooves 56 tracking the upper belts 44. The axes of the two rollers 46 and 48 lie in a common horizontal plane.

In this particular instance there are three lower belts 42, and four upper belts 44, and the belts of the two sets of belts are in alternate vertical planes as shown in Figures 3 and 4. The upper runs of the belts 44 preferably havelight contact with a transverse roller 58 whereby suitable clearance is maintained between the upper and lower runs of the upper belts 44. The lower runs of the upper belts 44 engage portions of the periphery of roller 46 between the grooves 54 through approximately 90. Consequently, the portionsof the belts 44 approachingthe roller'46 lie in a horizontal plane, while the p61"- tions departing from the roller 46 lie in a vertical plane. The belts 42 a1id44 can" be made of suitable material suchas resilient rubber, oras endless helicoid wiresprings as illustrated.

The upper runs of the lower belts 42 and the lower runs of the'upper belts 44,'respectively, lie in approximately horizontal planes; and while'these planes are spaced apart suificiently at the ,inlet end of the conveyor 12-to facilitate entry of the bags into' position between the two'sets of 'belts, the ,said planes converge slightly toward thedischargeend of the conveyor 12, so that at their discharge ends the lower runs of the upper belts extend at least partially into. thespaces between the upper runs of the lower belts in a manner'disposing them .in interleaved or interposed, staggered relation (Fig. 4). Thus, when a bag B progresses .to the left from engagement with the rollers 36 and 38 (Figures 1 and 2) the bag is caused to assume a corrugated form whereby it is held in light frictional engagement with the belts.

As previously explained, the rollers 36 and 38 are rotated in a particular manner for the purpose of withdrawing each finished bag from the forming machine It and for advancing the bag to .thefconveying means 12. The mechanism for effecting this rotation is fully explained in said copending application Serial No. 167,404 and in said Patent No. 2,347,902.

It will be evident that as eachfinished bag is being conveyed by the belts 42- and 44, it. is caused to be bent over the roller 46 and then discharged downwardly in a substantially vertical plane intermediate the axes of the rollers 46 and 48. In order to insure the proper. downward discharge of the bags, stripper fingers 60 and 62 are provided. The stripper fingers 60 and 62 are fixed to the frame of the machine beneath the rollers 46 and 48 and extend upwardly. from said frame and are received in suitable auxiliarygrooves 64 and 66 formed in the rollers 46 and 48, respectively. Apair of guide plates 68 and 70 are fixed to the frame of the machine below the rollers 46 and 48 and extend downwardly in substantially parallel spaced relation with each other to receive therebetween the bags from the stripper fingers 60, 62, and to guide the bags downwardly into the receiving throat of the conveyor 14 of the filling machine.

While a preferred embodiment of the present invention is described herein, it should be noted that various changes may be made therein'without departing from the spirit of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

Having thus described myinvention what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

l. A conveyor comprising a frame, a first pair of opposed rollers mounted in said frame and having their axes in a common plane, a second pair of opposed rollers mounted on said frame and having their axes in a common plane perpendicular to the plane of the axes of said first pair of opposed rollers, a first set of laterally spaced belts trained around one roller of said first pair of rollers and around one roller of said second pair of rollers, a second set of laterally spaced belts trained around the other roller of said first pair of rollers and around the other roller of said second pair of rollers, said second set of belts engaging one roller of said second pair of rollers through an arc of grooves formed in the surfaces of the rollers of said second pair of rollers intermediate thebelt's'tr'aine'd therearound, and stripper fingers fixed to said frame and extending into said grooves in substantially tangential relation with the associated rollers. v 2. A conveyor comprising a frame, a. first pair of opposed rollers mounted on'said 'frame and having their axes in a common plane, asecond pair of opposed rollers mounted on said frame and having their axes in a common plane at an angle to the plane ofthe axes of said first pair of opposed rollers, a first set of laterally spaced belts trained around one roller of said first pair of rollers and around-one roller of saidsecohd pair of rollers, a second set oflaterall'y' spaced belts trained around the other roller of said first pair'of rollers and around the other roller of said second pairof rollers, said second set of belts engaging one of the rollers of said second pair throughout a number-of degrees corresponding to the angle between said planes, grooves formed in the surfaces of the rollers of said second pair of rollers intermediate the' belts trained therearound, and stripper fingers fixed to said frame and extending into said grooves.- v 1 'jReferences Cited in the file of i this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

